The law in question bars Sikhs from wearing turbans in every official ID, and was discussed with ex-President Sarkozy on his visit to India too.
New Delhi: As French President Emmanuel Macron arrives in India for a three-day visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj have received letters from the Sikh community to address an “unjust law” hurting the Sikh diaspora’s identity in France.
In a letter written to PM Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, general secretary of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, has sought to draw their attention to the “unjustified law for mandatory removal of dastaar (turban) of Sikhs living in France on every official ID”.
Arguing that the turban and the Sikhi kakaars – five items that Guru Gobind Singh commanded Khalsa Sikhs to wear at all times – are not “fashionable items for Sikhs”, and are instead an “inseparable part of Sikh culture and the Sikhi way of living”, Sirsa has requested the Prime Minister to discuss the issue with the French President during the visit.
“The issue was taken up earlier during (former French President Nicolas) Sarkozy’s visit to India as well, but nothing was done. Even earlier, we have conveyed to the French government to not see our issues as those of other religions,” said Sirsa, the MLA for Delhi’s Rajouri Garden, representing the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance.
In his letter to Swaraj, Sirsa has raised the issues of wearing turbans and other Sikh symbols in schools and workplaces as well. “Even Sikh children are not being allowed to wear dastaar and other Sikhi kakaars in French schools. Furthermore, there are no jobs for Sikhs wearing dastaar in France,” the letter states.
However, the issue of removing turbans for official IDs is the “most important”, Sirsa told ThePrint. “Even if I say we won’t send our kids to French schools, for example, we can’t not have ID proofs,” he said.
In 2016, the French embassy in New Delhi clarified that there was no ban on wearing turbans in public spaces. Even then, a charge was made by a Sikh organisation that the community had been fighting for its right to wear religious symbols in France.